Photograph
by devianttart
Summary: The picture was of two kids. Jack recognized the boy easily, with his floppy hair and geek glasses. But who was the girl with the red hair, wary eyes and small smile?


Set a few months Post-Meridian.

Warnings: some language.

* * *

"_The picture was of two kids. Jack recognized the boy easily, with his floppy hair and geek glasses. But who was the girl with the red hair, wary eyes and small smile?"

* * *

_

Jack walked into the coffee shop. He didn't really know what to expect. The phone call hadn't given him much to go on. "Mr. O'Neill, my name is Ella McPherson. I am a friend of Daniel Jackson and he gave me your number for emergencies." Jack was on alert. He and Daniel had gotten pretty close over the years, and Daniel had never mentioned someone named 'Ella.' The voice continued, "Please sir, I can't get a hold of Daniel and it's been…awhile." _Four months, two weeks, and one day,_ Jack automatically counted. "He said I could contact you if I couldn't find him. I just -" the woman was close to tears, "I need to know if he's okay."

Jack hesitated. He did not know this person and Daniel's…whatever…had been officially declared 'Classified.' And if this person really was a friend of Daniel's, just saying "Daniel's dead" over a phone was something Jack could not do. So he suggested that they meet here. It was a nice quiet coffee shop where they could talk and Jack could find out who she was. Stripping off his mirrored sunglasses, Jack scanned the room. And met an intense green gaze staring back at him. Red hair, glasses, black tee shirt. It all fit the description that 'Ella' had given him over the phone. He walked towards her as she stood up. She was tall and what the fashion world called 'voluptuous.' Jack didn't mind. He got tired of all the tiny woman they met off-world. Her tee-shirt read "Starfucker" with stars where the 'a' and 'u' should have been. His confusion deepened. This just did not seem like Daniel's type of girl.

"Ms. McPherson, nice to meet you." They shook hands and sat. The server came over and Jack ordered a large black coffee. There was a mug of chamomile tea in front of the woman. Judging from the small stack of papers and used bags, she was on her third cup. _Industrial strength relaxation,_ Jack mused.

Jack and the woman stared at each other. Finally, Jack broke the silence, "Ms. McPherson, I'm sorry but, who are you and why did you call me?" He hoped that sounded nicer to her than it had to him. Her intense gaze was unnerving him.

"Of course, right, I'm sorry," she blinked trying to get her thoughts together. "Um, first off, call me Ella. Um – Mr. O'Neill - "

"Jack."

She smiled slightly. "Jack…I've been friends with Daniel for a long time. We met when we were kids." Jack nodded, thinking of the photograph he had found the night before. "Mr. – Jack – I have to know. Is Daniel okay?"

The anxiety in her voice made Jack's heart hurt. As Jack watched Ella bite her lip, he noticed that her eyes were red from crying. _Dammit, Daniel. 'Ascended' four months, and you still make my life complicated._ He decided to go with the simplest version of the semi-truth. "Ella, I'm sorry to tell you this, but Daniel died four months ago."

Too often in his life, Jack had had to give death notifications. He was familiar with the many faces grief could wear. Ella looked at him. And then she **really **looked at him, her eyes demanding that he take back what he had said. Tears welled up and she put her forehead in her hands. Jack still did not know who this woman was but it was clear that all he had done was confirm what she already feared.

"Dammit, Daniel," Ella whispered. Jack smiled to himself. He was beginning to like this woman. "I thought…I was afraid…something just felt wrong. We've never gone this long without talking." She pinned him with her eyes, "How? How did it happen?"

And here was where things got tricky. "Did Daniel ever tell you what he did for a living?"

She shook her head, "No. I know he was an archeologist. And a linguist. But he wouldn't tell me anything more. When I finally harassed him enough, he said – he said it wasn't safe. What the hell could an archeologist do that would put his friends in danger?" _What, indeed_, Jack thought, his mind instantly conjuring up over a dozen times when Daniel's archeological interests jeopardized the team.

"Daniel worked for the military. I am a Colonel in the Air Force and he was a member of my team."

Ella's obvious disbelief cleared away some of her grief. "What? Why would Daniel work for the Air Force? Is that – is that how he died?"

"I'm sorry, but the details around his death are classified. I can tell you that he died bravely and he saved many lives with his actions," _Many of whom who weren't worth the sacrifice, _Jack thought bitterly.

"But I don't understand! Daniel wasn't military!"

"I agree," Jack replied. "Daniel wasn't military. That was one of the best things about having him on my team." God, Jack missed his friend.

Jack and Ella were silent as they finished their drinks and ordered refills. She looked so distraught that Jack had to do something to make her feel better. "Ella, if Daniel never told you what he did, how did you know to call me?"

She looked up from where she had been pondering her tea mug. "He gave me your number once. I knew he traveled a lot, we both do. Sometimes we wouldn't speak for a month at a time. But it was important for both of us that we not loose each other. So one night he wrote your number down, and your name. Conveniently forgetting to mention that you were a Colonel in the Air Force. Probably knew that it would just make me ask more questions. Anyway, he gave me the number and said, 'Here. If you ever need to find me, Jack will know where I am.' I wanted to call you earlier, but I kept hoping…"

Jack was stricken. He felt he should apologize to this stranger for Daniel's death, but he didn't know how. "So, you met Daniel when you were kids? Were you with one of the families that he stayed with?"

She flicked him an appraising glance. "You knew Daniel was a foster kid?" Jack nodded. "Well, so was I. We both ended up at the same home when I was 12 and he was 14. Did Daniel ever tell you what it was like for him then?"

"Little bits," Jack replied. "He didn't like to talk about it much."

Ella's eyes looked old. "Well, being a foster child can suck. Being a foster kid in **that** house did suck. I mean, the mom was okay, the dad was fine when he was sober, and there was plenty of food and stuff, but..."

Jack waited. He knew there was more.

"But their son…" the level of loathing in her voice took Jack by surprise, "their real son…he was not nice."

"What do you mean?" he prodded.

She sighed and pushed her hair out of her eyes, "He didn't like me. And he liked to hurt things he didn't like. The first time Daniel saw Brian hit me, he tried to stop him."

"Daniel saved you?"

"Oh no. We both got our asses thoroughly kicked. But he tried. No one had ever tried to stop someone from hitting me before. I can't say that I thanked him for trying. I think my response was, 'Leave me the fuck alone,' or something like that. But Daniel was nice. Always oh-so nice. And he was smarter than I had been and he'd been in the system longer than I had. He saw my defensive bullshit for exactly what it was." She gave a little smile that Jack recognized from the picture. "After awhile, we became friends. I don't know why he bothered. He was nice and smart and well-behaved. I was barely civilized. I did not come from a good home. I had a nasty temper and a good sized file of places that did not want me because I had an 'attitude problem.' I don't know why he cared."

Jack smiled at that, "Daniel had a thing for people with 'attitude problems.'"

"Well, whatever it was, he was there. He tried to keep me out of trouble. He got really good at pissing off Brian when Brian was coming from me. He couldn't always save me, but he was always there for me afterwards," he eyes had gone flat and Jack wondered what he was remembering. Then he wondered if he really wanted to know. "Daniel helped me. He made me see that there was a point to school and maybe a way out of this hell-hole called childhood. He was like a brother to me, then." A wistful expression replaced the grimness of a few moments ago.

"So you stayed in touch all these years?" Jack asked. He was beginning to really like this woman. He could see more why she was important to Daniel.

"Oh no. Daniel left when he was 16. College, **very** early admission, you know. But before he left, he convinced someone to get me out of there. No one would believe me, but he made them believe him. I don't know what he said, but he made sure I was safe. He could be very stubborn."

At that, Jack laughed. That was an understatement. Ella's laugh joined his. "You knew Daniel pretty well, didn't you Jack? I wish he'd told me…anything! It used to make me so crazy. I would ask and ask and ask and he would deflect the questions until we were talking about my work again."

"Daniel and I worked together for about 5 years. He got his ass kicked for me on occasion, but he also saved my life a couple of times. He was one of my best friends…" Jack's voice trailed off.

Ella placed her hand over Jack's in a comforting gesture. Jack studied the surface of his coffee. He knew logically that ascended wasn't the same thing as dead. And after the events with the photograph last night, Jack wasn't even sure that his ascended friend was that far away. But knowing these things didn't make Jack miss Daniel any less. Some days it hurt so much Jack thought he might have lost an arm or something. _Snap out of it, O'Neill._ "So, Ella, what do you do for a living?"

Her face brightened. Jack could already tell she loved what she did. "I work with foster kids. Well, more to the point, I work with agencies that work with foster kids. I travel a lot, just trying to make things better for kids in the system. That's how I met up with Daniel again. When we left the house, we shared letters, but it was hard as I moved around and he started to go on digs all over the place. By the time I was in college, we had lost touch. When I was older and thought to find him, it was like he dropped off the face of the planet or something." _Or something, _Jack thought. "And then I got a job out here. One day I turned around at the grocery store and poof! There he was. I don't know which of us was more surprised." She sat quietly for a minute, lost in her thoughts. "I'm sorry. I've just gone on and on here."

"No, that's fine," Jack assured her. "Daniel was kind of a private guy. It's nice to talk about him like this."

"Yeah, he could really keep his secrets," she said wryly.

"I don't know if you want to hear this," Jack started, "but there were good reasons for Daniel to worry about your safety." Visions of Sha're and Sarah Gardner and all of the various people in Daniel's life who had been hurt through his work flashed through Jack's mind.

"I know that his wife was kidnapped and murdered." That surprised Jack. "Daniel gave me the impression that it was something tribal, that he had met her on a dig. But I always suspected that his work had something to do with it. By the time we met each other, she had been missing for half year. He wouldn't talk about it much. But sometimes he cried."

"Daniel took Sha're's death really hard," Jack said. "He blamed himself for not being able to save her. He didn't talk to us about it much, either. I'm glad there was someone he could mourn with."

"'Us'?"

"My team," Jack didn't elaborate.

Again, the two focused on their drinks. Then Ella spoke, "Well, after Sha're died, Daniel was different. Whatever innocence was left in him was burned away. Our friendship changed, too. He needed more, and we grew closer."

Jack didn't know if he should ask this question, but by now he had to know, "Were you in love."

There was no embarrassment in her eyes when she answered, "We were lovers. Not at first, of course, but after awhile we fell in love. We took care of each other. Neither of us was available for a white picket fences type of commitment. But it was enough. We loved each other very much," she whispered the last.

Jack fumbled for his jacket. "After you called me yesterday, I found something that I think you're supposed to have." He handed her a picture. It had been lying in a box of Daniel's stuff. There were two things weird about it, though. First, Jack had been through the box before and was sure that the photograph had not been there. Second, that the box was all work stuff. That was why it had been sent to Jack's. Nothing in there should have been personal. Jack had walked past the box last night and something caught his eye. He opened the top flap and there was the picture, plain as day.

The picture was of two kids. Jack recognized the boy easily, with his floppy hair and geek glasses. But who was the girl with the red hair, wary eyes and small smile? Jack had purchased a nice frame on his way to the coffee shop, without really asking why. It made some sense now, but Jack was a little disturbed about it all.

Ella made a strangled noise when she saw what Jack had. "Where did you find that?"

"In a box of classified military materials," Jack replied.

"What was it doing in there?"

"I have no idea," Jack replied. Well, he had **some** idea but no way was he going into that now. "How old were you in the picture?"

"It looks like the summer that I was 13 and Daniel turned 15. Brian spent a few weeks at summer camp and I was able to breathe easier for a change."

"Sounds like Brian was a real piece of work." Privately, Jack was trying to figure out how he could track down this 'Brian' fellow.

Ella remained looking at the picture; "He's in jail now. He finally hurt a girl somebody cared about." She looked up at him; the same intense gaze from the beginning of their meeting. "Jack, thanks for meeting with me today. The picture…it helps." Grief came across her face, raw and unguarded. "I have to go now."

Jack stood up as she did. "Ella, I'm sorry I -. Um, you have my number, please use it."

She gave her now familiar wry smile, "I don't think I can handle another enigmatic man with a mystery job in my life, but thank you. And here," she scribbled a number on her business card, "if you ever need me, here I am." She reached for money for her bill, but he waved her off. He would get it. He watched her walk away, holding the picture tightly.

Jack sat back down and ordered another coffee. He sighed and stretched his legs. It felt like a door to Daniel's life had just been opened and he had a lot to think about.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Behind the coffee shop, unseen by Jack and locked in her car, Ella wept. Rocking back and forth in her grief, she clutched the photograph to her heart. She mourned Daniel and all he had been to her. She cried for her champion, rescuing her again and again, no matter how many black eyes it earned him. She cried for her friend who would listen to her work stories, commiserating about the world they came from, bolstering her up when her frustration was too great. And she cried for Daniel, warm and naked in her bed, reminding each other how it felt to be safe and loved.

* * *

The End.

_There is a prequel to this story titled "Picture Book" that is now complete. At some point, there will even be a sequel._


End file.
